Hundreds of jobs coming to Hanscom Air Force Base by 2021

Friday

Nov 10, 2017 at 1:59 PMNov 13, 2017 at 2:55 PM

Heather Beasley Doyle

Renovations have begun on one of two buildings that will provide offices to 675 military personnel who will commute to Hanscom Air Force Base once the construction ends. Of those employees, 325 currently work in Boston and 350 currently work in Concord.

This information came as part of a presentation made by Hanscom Air Force Base Commander Col. Roman Hund to the Hanscom Area Towns (HATS) Committee on Oct. 26. The presentation was an “update on major events, construction projects and the economic impact” of the base on the region, according to Benjamin Newell, 66th Air Base Group Public Affairs Specialist.

“It’s a regional transfer,” Newell said.

Those relocating from Concord work for the Army Corps of Engineers, while Boston’s contingent works for the Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA). Combined, the personnel shifts will save the Department of Defense $5.4 million annually in rent and other operating costs.

“It only made sense to have these [Department of Defense] agencies represented here at Hanscom,” Newell said.

Once at Hanscom, the DCMA staffers will work in a building currently under renovation. Those renovations should end in Nov. 2018. The Army Corps of Engineer employees should be able to move to Hanscom in 2021, when renovations to a different building are tentatively scheduled to wrap up.

Building updates for incoming personnel aren’t the only projects on Hanscom’s agenda. The base is constructing a $13.5 million, 66-bed dormitory, which will provide housing for 66 single enlisted airmen. Additionally, several other buildings are being renovated or constructed, in some cases following the demolition of an older facility. According to Hund’s presentation, MIT Lincoln Laboratory plans to add two new buildings, scheduled for completion in 2019. As of publication time, the Lexington Minuteman had not heard back from Lincoln Laboratory for further details.

By and large, the construction projects are “simply the result of a constant effort to replace ageing infrastructure that had become very difficult to maintain with more modern, efficient facilities,” Newell wrote in an email.

“However, some of the activity is attributable to Hanscom acquiring new missions and tenants,” he added, emphasizing that some tenants “are effectively replacing others that left the base in previous years, including the Air Force Research Laboratory directorates that had been located here for decades, but were moved from here in 2011.”